Iris was only using the shower. She felt tempted to lounge around in the bathtub, to see how well those jets worked, but even she knew that now was not the time. There was a reason she, Lilian, and Kevin weren’t taking a bath together.
Maybe some other time. Still…
She took a little longer than she probably should have, but Iris still eventually got out of the shower. After drying herself off, she stepped into the bedroom in her birthday suite, a sultry smile on her lips.
“Hey, you two. I know we’re on an important mission, but I was thinking—just because we’re on a mission that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t… have… fun… eh?”
“Isn’t this the coolest thing ever, Beloved? It’s so awesome! Now we can store all of our manga on this little device! How cool!”
“Definitely. I’m glad we decided to buy this. I like holding a manga in my hand, but when you’re out on the road, having a single device that can carry all of our manga is great.”
The two were sitting on the room’s large, queen-sized bed. Kevin sat with his back against the headboard, while Lilian was snuggled between his legs, her back pressed against his chest. His head rested on her shoulder. Lilian was holding a sleek-looking device in her hands, a tablet from which the two of them read their manga.
They looked super comfortable.
“Pay attention to me, damn it!” Iris shouted.
Lilian and Kevin looked up.
“Oh, Iris,” Lilian greeted. “Finished with your shower?”
Iris felt a vein throbbing on her forehead. “Aren’t you two even a little bit aroused? I’m standing here naked, you know?”
“So?” Kevin asked, going back to the device in their hands. “You prance around naked all the time. Nothing new there.”
“Oh, that is low, Stud. Are you trying to kill my self-esteem here?”
“I’m just saying that you can’t expect us to react when you’re always like this,” Kevin replied before tapping on the device. “How about this one?”
“Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches?” Lilian hummed thoughtfully. “Sure, I like this manga.”
“Tch!”
Wandering over to their meager luggage, Iris searched through it and found a large t-shirt, which she put on. She didn’t bother wearing panties. They always felt stifling on her tails. She then climbed onto the bed with Kevin and Lilian, crawling over to the pair and pressing herself against them. They didn’t resist. Kevin merely shifted his arm so she could snuggle into his torso.
“So, what are you guys reading?” she asked.
“Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches,” Lilian answered, her eyes never leaving the tablet, which Iris noticed was full of pictures. “It’s about a high school student who has the power to copy the powers of the witches who go to his school. It’s really good. The author Miki Yoshikawa is a female author who knows her fanservice. There are some epic panty-shots in here.”
“It’s also a good story and isn’t just about the panty-shots,” Kevin added. “There’s a lot of good drama and some major tension in it. I really love the romantic relationship between Yamada and Shiraishi. It’s so cute.”
“The cutest,” Lilian agreed.
Iris clicked her tongue as the two went back to reading their manga. She really didn’t understand what was so great about manga.
Because manga is awesome.
“No, it isn’t. It’s just a bunch of drawings.”
You clearly have no understanding of what makes manga awesome.
“And you’re an idiot.”
H-how rude!
“Please don’t antagonize the author. You know how sensitive he gets,” Kevin said, then he paused, his face scrunching up. “Wait. What am I saying?”
“Whatever.”
Iris snuggled further into the pair, moving her left leg over them both. Resting her head on Lilian’s other shoulder, she absently read the manga with them for a while, but she soon grew bored. Her sister and Kevin might’ve loved anime and manga, but it really wasn’t her thing.
Lulling warmth enclosed around her as Iris closed her eyes and fell asleep.
***
One of the many benefits about working for the Sons and Daughters of Humanity was definitely the transportation.
Justin sat in the latest military helicopter, a state-of-the-art vehicle that could traverse the entire United States in less than three hours. This particular helicopter was based on the Ka-226 Russian military transport helicopter, a light multi-purpose vehicle that was designed for carrying out day and night reconnaissance/surveillance and various other tasks. The interior wasn’t posh, but it was comfortable. Sitting within the back near the exit hatch, Justin stared out of the window, watching the clouds blow past him.
“We’ve arrived at our destination, sir!” Jill called from the front. “We’ll be touching down shortly.”
“Understood,” Justin said. “So, how do you two like your new suits?”
There was a brief pause.
“They’re… all right, sir. It’s a little uncomfortable.”
“I think they’re pretty cool,” Jack added. “Jill just doesn’t like hers because she feels exposed.”
“Shut up, idiot!” Jill smacked Jack on the head.
“Ouch!”
“Eyes on the front,” Justin warned.
“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!”
They soon touched down on a landing platform. With a hiss of hydraulics, the exit hatch opened. Justin stood up and walked out, where he was met with an older gentleman who had a handlebar mustache.
“Captain Develin,” Justin greeted. “I heard you had a problem with two of your subordinates recently.”
Captain Develin, a man with a strong jaw and a Greek nose, grimaced at the reminder.
“I see you’ve heard about that. Apparently, two of my soldiers fought over a girl at the airport, which ended up involving more than a fourth of the troops stationed there.”
They began to walk, Jack and Jill trailing behind them. The group stepped through a door that was held open by two officers, both suffering from several bruises. The male of the duo had a split lip; the female a black eye. Captain Develin looked at them both as he walked past, causing them to turn their heads in shame.
“I wouldn’t be too hard on them,” Justin started as they walked down a flight of stairs. “The person they were dealing with happened to be a kitsune, one who is rather talented at seduction. Trust me on this. I am personally acquainted with the vixen in question.”
“They should have still not allowed themselves to fall prey to her charms so easily,” Captain Develin spoke in a gruff voice, clearly still displeased.
Justin shrugged. He knew better than to blame those two. Both of them were clearly young and inexperienced, and Iris was an expert at using her charms to seduce others. Someone who didn’t have experience with her… particular talents wouldn’t stand a chance in hell if she got serious.
After entering the command center, Justin followed Captain Develin over to a large screen, which was currently replaying the same scene over and over again—Iris seducing the two soldiers with naught but her feminine wiles, and then the two soldiers getting into a fight over her. Standing near the raven-haired vixen were two familiar faces: a redhead with emerald eyes and a blond-haired teen with blue eyes.
“Yep, that’s them all right. Kevin Swift, and Lilian and Iris Pnevma.” Justin cupped a hand to his chin. “You’ve been tracking them, I take it?”
Captain Develin nodded. “Yes, ever since I was alerted to the fight, I’ve had my men keep an eye on all the security cameras in the city.” Pressing a button on a nearby console, the captain changed the monitor from the fight to another screen, this one displaying the same trio speaking with a receptionist in the lobby of a hotel. “They were last seen entering the Sheraton Suites at Capitol Square and renting out a hotel room.”
“Is that so…” Justin thought for a moment before deciding on a course of action. “I want you to set
up a perimeter around the hotel using all of your forces.”
Captain Develin looked startled. “All of our forces, sir?”
“Yes, all of your forces,” Justin said. “We’re not dealing with a couple of amateurs here. Those three have already faced forces greater than anything you can imagine. Set up a perimeter around the hotel and send in a team of your best men to dispose of them.”
“Understood, sir!” Captain Develin saluted. Justin returned the salute.
A little while later, as Captain Develin was talking with his troops, Justin stood back. Standing beside him, Jack and Jill seemed confused.
“Um, sir?” Jill asked.
“Yes?”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” When Justin raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. “Letting the regular military forces deal with these three, I mean. Wasn’t this supposed to be your job?”
Looking at the two soldiers beside him, Justin presented them with a sardonic grin. “If there is one thing that I’ve learned about these three, it’s that you can’t rely on regular methods to deal with them. Kevin is resourceful, and with Lilian and Iris by his side, those three are near impossible to defeat using regular methods.” Justin looked back at Captain Develin giving his men a pep talk. “I suspect Captain Develin and his men will fail to get rid of them.”
“Then why send them after those three, sir?” asked Jack.
“Because they’ll weaken Kevin, Lilian, and Iris to the point where dealing with them will be easy.” Justin smiled as something sharp struck his chest. “That’s right. We’ll wait until those three are too weak to fight, and then we’ll exterminate them.”
***
Kevin woke up with a start. He peered around the room. Lilian and Iris were snuggling with him, and their warmth threatened to lull him back to sleep. Yet he couldn’t. There was something that he needed to do first.
“Beloved?” Lilian woke up as he tried to crawl out from underneath the two girls. Her emerald eyes practically glowed in the dark as she blinked at him.
“Sorry,” Kevin whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I just need to use the bathroom.”
“M’kay,” Lilian murmured. “Don’t be too long.”
Kevin slipped out of the bed, and his space was quickly filled by Iris, who used this moment to snuggle into her sister’s breasts. He felt a moment of envy, though whether that was for Lilian or Iris he didn’t know. It was pointless envy anyway. He slept with both of them.
I still don’t even know how that happened…
As Kevin took care of his business in the bathroom, he tried to think of what he might’ve done to deserve this life. Many boys would kill to have a life like his, dating a hot redhead and sleeping with her sister on top of that. Granted, his relationship with Iris was because the raven-haired vixen wanted to be with Lilian. He was just a side dish as far as Iris was concerned.
It really makes me wonder whether I’m lucky or if Murphy is just screwing with me.
He supposed it didn’t really matter. Iris might not love him, not like she did Lilian, but their relationship was solid. They trusted each other, and both of them loved Lilian. He still found that… disturbing. Iris’s love for her sister perturbed him, but he couldn’t deny that her feelings were true, and thus he tried to accept it, even if he didn’t approve of it.
Incest in the human world was taboo. He didn’t know if there were any laws against it, but if there were, then he wouldn’t have been surprised. Even now, after months of being in this strange three-way relationship, he keenly felt that sense of wrongness.
I wonder if this means I’m going to Hell when I die…
Flushing the toilet and washing his hands, Kevin entered the bedroom. He was just about to head over to bed, when several lights outside caught his attention.
Cities like Columbus were always bright, a sea of twinkling stars built within structures of concrete and steel. Some lights moved, some remained still. There was one section of lights that weren’t visible—the ones that had been on right before he and Lilian had finally fallen asleep. The ones that were always on in case people came into the hotel late.
Peering out of the window, Kevin spotted that the lights that had once illuminated the entrance had gone off. Narrowing his eyes, he caught several figures moving within the darkness, and a little further off…
This isn’t good.
Hurrying over to the bed, Kevin shook Lilian and Iris awake.
“Beloved?” Lilian sat up in bed, her spaghetti strap sliding down her shoulder.
“Ngg.” Iris groaned as she rubbed her eyes. “What the hell, Stud? Why did you wake us?”
“We’re in trouble,” Kevin said, his expression grim.
***
Ever since the war against yōkai began, mankind had begun creating yōkai countermeasures. Thanks to the Sons and Daughters of Humanity’s research into yōkai, several new inventions had been created to help deal with the threat they represented.
All soldiers were now equipped with special goggles that rendered any and all visual illusions useless. They couldn’t stop other sensory illusions, like ones that affected the ears, nerves, or brain directly, but they worked well on yōkai who could only create false images. There weren’t many of these inventions, sadly, so they were often used only during special operations. All soldiers were also equipped with brand new Kevlar vests, which offered decent protection against most elemental attacks.
A group of four soldiers utilizing this new equipment ran up a flight of stairs. They were an elite group specializing in infiltration and assassination, and their job that night was to assassinate three people: Two kitsune and a single human. Even if killing children left a bad taste in their mouth, who were they to question their orders?
According to the receptionist they interrogated, the trio were housed on the fifth floor, in room 515. After ascending several flights of stairs, they traveled down a hall with beige walls and red carpet. Door after door passed by on either side, and they counted each one. 501. 503. 507. 511. 515. They had arrived.
Through the crack in the bottom, the soldiers could see the lights were on. Their new equipment, the one that let them see through illusions, was sensitive to light. They wouldn’t be able to use their goggles in here.
Two of the soldiers stood on either side of the door, their backs pressed against the wall, assault rifles gripped firmly in their hands. Another knelt on one knee, swiveling her gun left and right as she checked the perimeter. The last one used the keycard he’d gotten from the receptionist, sliding it through the lock.
A soft beep emitted from it as the tiny bulb in the left-hand corner turned green. Gripping the knob, he turned it silently and opened the door just a crack. He looked at his three companions, who gave him nods to proceed. Then he swung the door wide and swiftly entered the room, his gun already preparing to lay suppressive fire.
He stopped.
He stared.
Two girls were lying on the bed, oblivious to the world around them. One of them, a raven-haired beauty with pale skin, lay atop the other, a redhead with fair skin. They were entangled in a web of limbs. The dark-haired girl’s hands were inside of the redhead’s shirt, groping her breasts, eliciting a great many moans of delight from the one underneath her. In return, the beauty below had grabbed a handful of the other girl’s plentiful butt, and she made a great show of squeezing the completely bare bottom.
They were sharing in a sloppy, open-mouthed kiss. Their tongues clashed, hooking, pulling, pushing, sliding, swirling, and grinding against each other. It was a sight that many a man had dreamed of seeing; two gorgeous females passionately engaged in an epic make out session.
“Hey,” one of the soldiers said as she walked into the room, “why haven’t you… oh…”
One by one, the soldiers entered the room and stared at the scene taking place. Even the strictly heterosexual females were captivated by the passion being put on display. Perhaps it was simply the eroticism of the si
ght before them, or maybe it was due to the massive amount of pheromones being released into the air. Whatever the case may have been, none of the people there could turn their eyes from the sight.
That also meant they were unaware of the person closing the door behind them.
The last thing those soldiers saw before darkness engulfed them was the raven-haired female slipping a hand into the redhead’s panties.
Then they saw nothing.
***
Kevin sighed as he finished tying the soldiers up. They wouldn’t be able to keep them here for long. He was sure that, after a certain amount of time passed and no word was sent, another group would be sent in as backup. There might have even already been several teams inside of the hotel that he didn’t know of.
“Iris,” Kevin made a snap decision, “when they wake up, place them under an enchantment and learn whatever you can from them. If possible, get them to tell us the emplacement of their forces waiting outside.”
Iris sent him a sloppy salute. “You got it, Stud.”
“What should I do?” asked Lilian.
“Nothing for now,” Kevin said. “Before we do anything else, we need to know more about what we’re dealing with, and Iris is the only one who can get that information.”
Lilian huffed and crossed her arms, her cheeks puffing up like a balloon filled with hot air. “I could get that information if I wanted to.”
“Even if you could, I’d rather you didn’t,” Kevin started, taking Lilian’s hand in his own. “I’d get jealous if you started putting the moves on somebody else, even if it’s just to get information.”
Lilian needed several seconds to understand what he meant by that, but when she figured it out, her lips curved into a beaming smile. “Ufufufu, you know just what to say to make me feel better, Beloved.”
Unfortunately, her laugh kinda ruined the beauty of her vibrantly curled lips.
A Fox's Alliance (American Kitsune Book 10) Page 35
